Talpa's Third Strike
by DarkHarpie54
Summary: tbd
1. Chapter 1

A New Threat

For once it was quiet around the Koji mansion. Cye was out swimming; Sage was meditating out in the woods; Rowen was at the library; Kento was out playing football with Yulie with White Blaze keeping them company and Ryo and Mia were at the grocery store.

In the woods, Sage's eyes snapped open when he felt a presence near him and he turned to see a demon standing off to his right. The demon had jet black fur with the head of a tiger and the body of a human. He had a long tail that ended in a sharp point and each finger ended in sharp-looking talons. Sage jumped to his feet, his subarmor already forming on him.

"And who, may I ask, are you?" Sage demanded, ready to call upon his armor.

"Name's Vyramax," the demon said coming closer. "Prepare yourself."

"Armor of Halo, dao chi."

His armor appeared on him and he held his nodatchi out in front of him. He braced himself as Vyramax charged him, his claws out to strike him down. At the lake, Cye emerged from under the water to hear the sounds of a battle somewhere in the woods. He quickly got out of the water, his subarmor appearing and ran into the woods. In a few minutes, he saw Sage locked in battle with a demon.

"Armor of Torrent, dao shin."

He charged forward with his sai out in front of him and knocked the demon away from Sage, who staggered backwards to lean against a tree to catch his breath.

"Thanks Cye," Sage said coming to stand beside him.

"That does it," Vyramax yelled and lifted his hands.

Both Sage and Cye were lifted up and was sent flying backwards. Sage hit a tree and laid there dazed. Cye struggled to his feet and faced off against Vyramax, but the demon wasn't interested in battling Cye, his eyes were locked on the motionless Sage.

"This should take care of you for now," Vyramax said as he raised four daggers and got ready to throw them at Sage.

"No you don't," Cye said and called on his sure-kill. "SUPER WAVE SMASHER."

As the sure-kill barreled onto him, Vyramax whirled around and threw two of the daggers at Cye. Then with a flick of his wrist, the sure-kill came back at Cye. Both of them hit Cye at the same time and he was thrown back into a tree. The two daggers went into his side.

"That's for getting in the way," Vyramax growled and turned back to Sage who was starting to come around.

"Leave them alone," a woman's voice demanded from behind him.

He turned to see a young woman standing behind him. She had long dark blue hair and light silver eyes. She wore a navy blue tank top and black stretch pants. She wore high heel boots that ran nearly up to her knees.

"How dare you stop me from my mission, Kana," Vyramax hissed at the sight of her.

"I warned you," Kana said, stepping forward. "Armor of the Heavens, dao jinkei."

A navy blue and teal armor appeared on her and she carried a bow. She started twirling the bow over her head and called on her sure-kill, "HEAVENS GATES SLASH," she said bringing it down fast.

"I'll be back," Vyramax screamed as the sure-kill hit him and he vanished.

She put her bow back on her back and then hurried over to Sage, who was on his knees beside Cye. He had managed to get the daggers out and was getting ready to heal him when she knelt down beside him.

"Some of Vyramax's poison daggers," she said examining the daggers. "Healing him will help but it won't stop the poison inside of him," she said as his hands started glowing green.

"Is there an antidote?" Sage said as he finished the healing and sat back.

"I have some but it won't completely flush the poison out of him," Kana said. "Do you have somewhere we can go?" 

"The house I stay at with my friends is not far from here," Sage said, getting to his feet.

Sage bent down and picked Cye up, slinging him over his shoulder and they headed for Mia's house. Halfway there, they were met by the others.

"Sage, what happened?" Ryo asked. "And who is he?"

"We were attacked by a demon called Vyramax," Sage said. "Cye was hit by some poison daggers."

They glanced up as the armor disappeared and they saw that the mysterious warrior was a girl. "I'll explain everything once we get him to safety."

They turned around and headed back to the house. Sage and Kana disappeared upstairs with Cye. Sage laid him on his bed in his and Kento's room. Sage's healing had almost completely healed the wounds where the daggers had pierced.

"Lift his head up so I can pour the antidote in his mouth," Kana said to Sage.

Sage lifted Cye's head as Kana took a small blue bottle with some kind of liquid inside of it out of her pocket. She opened it and poured the liquid into Cye's mouth. When that was done, Sage laid him back on the pillow.

"That should help him," Kana said. "He'll be fine in the next day or so."

"Let's go down and talk to the others," Sage suggested and they left the room, where Sage pulled the door closed and they head downstairs to join the others, who were in the living room.

Before they could sit down, they heard a loud roar from outside and they rushed outside to see White Blaze nose to nose with a huge black panther.

"Where did that come from?" Kento asked.

When the panther saw Kana, she came over and stood beside her. "Guys, this is Kentaro. She protects me."

A bright blue light illuminated the area just then and when it disappeared, an older man appeared wearing dark purple robes.

"Master Kiyoshi," Kana said stepping up to him.

"So these are the famous Ronin Warriors," Kiyoshi said looking at the four standing there in their subarmors. "Where is the fifth?"

"Vyramax attacked Sage and he would've been hit by his poison daggers if Cye wouldn't have intervened," Kana explained.

"Let's step inside," Kiyoshi said. "We have a lot to discuss."

They all headed into the house and sat around the living room. Mia disappeared upstairs to check on Cye. In the Nether Realm, Vyramax was furious. Torrent had spoiled his attempt to capture Halo. Suddenly, he stopped pacing as a plan came to him.

"If I capture Torrent in his weakened state, I should be able to get ahold of my true target," Vyramax said as a mischievous grin came across his face.

"Have you been able to get ahold of Halo?" a woman's voice broke through the darkness.

He looked around and saw his mistress standing behind him. "Not yet, Mistress Kaiyo. Torrent got in the way of my daggers," he explained. "I'm going to use him as bait."

"Good," Kaiyo said.


	2. Chapter 2

Unexpected Turn of Events

Cye slowly came around to find he was in extreme pain. He finally was able to open his eyes and he looked around to find he was in his and Kento's room at Mia's. He went to sit up but the pain stopped him and he had to lay back. He was finally able to sit up and he got to his feet, unsteady at first and walked to the door. As he opened it, he could hear voices downstairs so he headed for the stairs.

"What's going on?" he asked coming down the stairs causing everyone to glance up.

"You should be resting," Mia said sliding over to make more room for him to sit.

"Couldn't get back to sleep," Cye explained.

"Back to what we were getting ready to talk about," Ryo said turning their attention back to Kiyoshi and Kana.

"My name is Benjiro Kiyoshi," he started. "I live in a small village called Osayama. I'm the elder there who protects the whole village."

"And my name is Kana Kurosawa," Kana said. "I bear the Armor of the Heavens. I am also from Osayama."

"My question is who is Vyramax?" Kento asked.

"Vyramax has lived in the Nether Realm for hundreds of years," Kiyoshi explained. "He hardly came into this world. The one time he did I succeeded in trapping him back in the Nether Realm. But somehow he's been released."

"When we were fighting him, he seemed more interested in capturing Sage than fighting me when Sage got knocked out," Cye said.

"Weird," Kiyoshi said. "Usually he doesn't go for just one person."

"Perhaps whoever is controlling him is after Sage for some reason," Kana said.

"Well I'll take my leave for the night," Kiyoshi said getting to his feet. "I'll return in the morning, Kana."

Kana walked him outside and he disappeared not far off the porch. She walked back into the living room and joined the others. They sat around talking for about an hour. Cye started feeling sleepy and decided to go back to bed.

He said night to everyone and climbed the stairs and into the bathroom. Meanwhile, Vyramax was outside waiting for his chance. He snapped to attention, as the light came on in the room above him and he saw Cye's form in the window.

One glance in the living room window showed that everyone else was still downstairs. He heard growling behind him and he turned to see White Blaze and Kentaro behind him. Quickly, he threw a small ball down on the ground and gas exploded from it. When it cleared, both of them were knocked out.

"Has anyone seen Kentaro?" Kana asked looking around for the panther.

"I think she went outside with White Blaze," Ryo said. "Come on. We'll go find them."

Vyramax saw Ryo and Kana heading for the door and shrank into the shadows to wait.

"Perfect," Kaiyo said as she watched from the Nether Realm. "Capture Wildfire while you're at it, Vyramax. I'll be able to try and get the Inferno armor as well. Do what you want with Kana."

"Yes my mistress," Vyramax said.

He waited and watched as Ryo and Kana got closer. As they came closer, he threw another small ball out in front of them and the gas enveloped them and soon they passed out.

"Demons," he said and four appeared. "Take Wildfire to the castle and chain him in the dungeon."

They picked Ryo up and disappeared. Vyramax easily scaled the side of the house and jumped onto the balcony. Cye whirled around at the noise, just in time to see a small ball fly into the room and burst open. Cye went for the door but passed out before he reached it and he hit the floor with a loud crash.

"What was that?" Mia asked when they heard the crash.

"That came from your room Kento," Rowen said and they hurried up the stairs.

Vyramax heard their footsteps and he summoned more demons to take Cye away, and then stayed to face off against the remaining Ronins.

"Where's Cye?" Kento demanded.

Vyramax just grinned. "They are our guests right now." And with that, he disappeared laughing.

"What did he mean 'they are our guests'?" Rowen wondered.

"Where's Ryo and Kana?" Mia asked as she came in behind them.

Outside, Kentaro was the first one to come around. She raised her head to find White Blaze right beside her. She got to her feet and looked around and saw Kana not far away, sprawled out on the grass. She nudged White Blaze to wake him and then went over to Kana and nudged her also.

"Wh-what happened?" she asked as she shook her head to wake up.

She looked up as the others rushing over to her. Rowen took her arm and helped her to her feet.

"Wasn't Ryo with you?" Sage asked.

She nodded. "I don't know what happened," she said. "We came out to find White Blaze and Kentaro and then nothing until Kentaro nudged me awake."

They retreated back in the house to figure out what they were going to do next. In the Nether Realm, Vyramax was watching as the demons chained Cye to the wall in the cell. Ryo was in the cell next door, also chained.

"Good job, Vyramax," Kaiyo said appearing beside him. "Summon me when Torrent wakes. I have plans for him."

"Yes, Kaiyo," Vyramax said as she walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

Turned Against Your Friends

"The only thing I can figure is that he's after Ryo's Inferno Armor," Sage said as they sat around the living room.

"You are absolutely right Halo," a new voice said from the front door. "I also know why he's after you also."

They turned to see a young woman with short blond hair and dark brown eyes standing in the doorway.

"Hana," Kana said getting to her feet and over to the door where she hugged her best friend. "What are you doing here?" 

"Kiyoshi sent me to help," Hana said. "Looks like I got here just in time."

"Guys, this is Hana Oshima," she said introducing her. "Hana, this is Rowen, Sage, Kento and Mia."

"Let's discuss this in the morning," Rowen suggested. "You guys can stay in the spare room."

They all agreed and headed upstairs. But Kana and Hana stayed up talking for a bit.

"So why's Vyramax after Sage?" Kana asked.

"She wants his healing abilities," Hana explained.

"She?" 

"Kaiyo is the one that released Vyramax," Hana said. "She wants his powers to completely heal her."

"I thought after what happened to her six years ago, nothing could help her," Kana said.

"Well, the way it sounds, she thinks Sage's powers are enough to heal her," Hana said.

"But the extent of her injuries, it'll probably kill Sage," Kana said.

Hana just nodded and they lay down on the beds and they were soon sound asleep. At the castle, Ryo started to come around. His head felt like it was splitting in two. He looked around and saw he was in some kind of dungeon.

"About time you woke up Wildfire," Vyramax said appearing at the door.

"What do you want with me Vyramax," Ryo demanded as Vyramax entered the cell.

"Actually, it's not what I want," the demon said smirking. "You'll see in due time."

Vyramax left laughing, slamming the door shut behind him, making Ryo wince in pain.

"They're both away, Kaiyo," Vyramax said coming to stand beside Kaiyo.

"Bring Torrent to me," she said.

Cye's head jerked up as the door swung open and Vyramax came in, followed by two other demons. They held him as Vyramax undid the chains and he was forced to go with them.

Kaiyo looked up as Cye was forced into the room and chained to a chair. "Leave us."

"Who are you and why am I here?" Cye asked.

"That's not important right now, Torrent," Kaiyo said as she took a bottle from a shelf and walked over. "You're my ticket to getting a hold of your friend, Halo."

"And why would I want to do that," Cye demanded.

"You'll find out soon enough."

As Kaiyo got closer, Cye could tell she was in bad shape. She had burns and cuts everywhere and could just imagine how it looked under the clothes. She grabbed the back of his head and tilted it back and poured the liquid down his throat. He tried not swallowing but she punched him and it went down. When he looked back up, his eyes were a darker blue.

"When do we start?" he asked as he was unchained from the chair and stood up.

"In the morning," she said. "Vyramax!"

"Yes my mistress," Vyramax said coming in.

"Show him to the room next to mine," Kaiyo said.

The demon nodded and motioned for Cye to follow him. The next morning, everyone was up but Rowen.

"Is he always a late sleeper," Kana asked and the others nodded. "Hana, why don't you wake him up the way you used to wake Tsuna up."

"Good idea," Hana said heading for the steps.

The rest of the guys looked at her, confused but she just smiled back at them. Hana reached Rowen and Sage's room and entered to see nothing but a lump in the bed closest to the window. She walked over and lowered her head down to where his head was and screamed at the top of the lungs. With a yell, Rowen sat straight up in bed and looked around to see Hana laughing.

"Why'd you do that for?" he grumbled rubbing his eyes.

"Time to get up," was the only thing she said as she walked back out the door.

Rowen knew he couldn't go back to sleep. If he did, they'd probably send Hana in to wake him up once more. He took a shower, changed and headed downstairs for breakfast. Everyone tried not to laugh as he entered the living room.

"It wasn't that funny," Rowen grumbled as he sat down on the couch.

"Guess you won't be sleeping in anymore, huh?" Sage said laughing.

"Hah, hah, very funny," Rowen said.

At the temple, Ryo had dozed off. He tried everything he could think of to free himself from the chains binding him, but it was no use. Cye came to the door and looked in through the window.

"What are you doing down here?" Vyramax demanded coming up behind him. "You were told to remain in your room."

"I wasn't told any such thing," Cye said as he whirled around to face the demon.

"Mistress Kaiyo wants you to stay in your room until it is time to put the plan into action," Vyramax said grabbing a hold of Cye's arm.

"I can walk," Cye said jerking his arm out of his grasp.

They walked away, not realizing that Ryo had woken up and had heard everything.


	4. Chapter 4

Friend Against Friend

Back at the house, Kana was sitting on the docks, Kentaro by her side.

"You seemed trouble," Sage said as he sat down beside her.

"Just worried about Ryo and Cye," Kana said. "Kaiyo is capable of doing anything. She is highly skilled in dark magic."

"Seems like you know her quite well," Sage said.

"I should, she's my twin sister," Kana said turning to face him.

"What exactly happened to her to pull her away from her sister and friends?" Sage asked.

"It all happened six years ago."

Six Years Earlier

"Kaiyo, what are you doing?" Kana asked as she came up behind her sister who was engrossed in a book sitting on the table in front of her.

"Learning a new spell," Kaiyo said not bothering to look at her.

"I don't think this is the kind of spell Master Kiyoshi wanted you to learn," Kana said making a grab for the book.

"Back off Kana," Kaiyo said knocking Kana backwards with a blocking spell. "I don't see Master Kiyoshi anywhere, now do you?"

"Kaiyo, that spell is dangerous," Kana begged. "If anything should go wrong, you can seriously hurt yourself and anyone around you."

"I don't need your permission," Kaiyo practically screamed.

"But you do need my permission," Kiyoshi said coming into the room. "I said you could look at that book, that's it Kaiyo."

"Well, maybe I'll just leave the village for good," Kaiyo said her anger flaring. "I'm sick and tired of all these rules and regulations. Let's try this spell out and see what it really does." 

Using the dark magic she was able to summon a huge ball of fire.

"Kana!" Kiyoshi said trying to find her in the heat.

"Go," Kana said from nearby. "I'll be right behind you."

Present

"Did you make it?" Sage said when she stopped talking.

"The room caught on fire," Kana said. "I could hear Kaiyo screaming because she couldn't handle that much dark magic. I tried to get to her but I was knocked down by a beam from the ceiling, trapping my leg. Kiyoshi was able to extinguish the fire with a water spell. I was barely conscious from the smoke and the last thing I remembered before passing out was seeing Kaiyo, her skin full of burns running by me and disappearing. Haven't seen her since. I still have this scar to remind me of that day." 

She lifted her pants leg on her right leg to show him a scar that ran down her shin. He could see where it had been burned.

"And now she's after you to completely heal herself," Kana said. "Not caring if it kills you in the process."

Sage put his arm around her shoulder and gave her a small hug. "Everything is going to be fine," he said. "I promise you this."

The door slammed open waking Ryo from his sleep. He glared at Vyramax who placed a tray in front of him and then turned to leave.

"Am I supposed to eat this stuff with my feet?" he said.

Vyramax whirled around and punched him in the stomach, making him double over in pain. He then undid the chains to make it so his hands were chained in front of him.

"You're lucky you're getting anything at all," Vyramax said.

He left, slamming the door behind him. Ryo examined the food. None of it seemed appetizing, but it was better than starving.

"Vyramax, as soon as Wildfire is through, bring him to me," Kaiyo said as Vyramax entered the room where she was sitting at a table flipping through a spell book.

Vyramax nodded and left the room once more. She glanced up as Cye came in not long after.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Sit down Torrent," she said. After he sat, she got down to business. "Vyramax is going to bring our prisoner up here soon. You're going to fight him. I'm after his Armor of Inferno and I plan on getting it. Go ahead and armor up."

"Armor of Torrent, dao shin."

Couple minutes later, Ryo was forced into the room by Vyramax, who kept his arms pinned behind his back.

"What did you do to Cye?" Ryo demanded when he saw Cye standing beside Kaiyo.

"Don't worry about him Wildfire," Kaiyo said. "Armor up."

"I'm not going to fight one of my best friends," Ryo said. "Cye, snap out of it. It's me, Ryo."

Instead of answering, Cye charged him with his sai out in front of him.

Ryo managed to jump out of the way. "I don't want to hurt you, but you leave me no choice," Ryo said. "Armor of Wildfire, dao jin." He joined his swords together and unleashed his sure-kill. "FLARE UP NOW."

"Armor of the Stars, dao menjo suru," Kaiyo said and a dark blue armor appeared and she pulled a sword from her back. "STARS RIBBON SLASH."

Cye was hit full force by Ryo's attack but he was able to release his sure-kill, "SUPER WAVE SMASHER."

Ryo yelled as both sure-kills hit him and was sent flying backwards into the wall and his armor disappeared and he laid there unconscious. Cye also was slammed into the wall but he was just dazed.

"Take him back to the dungeon and chain him," Kaiyo said. After the demons dragged Ryo away then she walked over to Cye and helped him to his feet. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Cye said. "I'm going to lay down a little bit."

At the house, Kana walked out and sat on the swing. Hana joined her soon.

"Is Kiyoshi sending the others?" Kana asked.

"As soon as he locates where they're at," Hana said.

"I hope it's soon," Kana said. "I don't think I can face Kaiyo without everyone."

"They'll get here," Hana promised giving her a small hug. "We'll get Ryo and Cye out of Kaiyo's grip and get rid of Vyramax and help turn Kaiyo good once again."

"How beautiful," a jeering voice said not far from them and they turned to see Vyramax.

"What do you want now?" Hana demanded.

"Bring Halo to the warehouse section of Toyama or never see your friends again," he said. "We'll be waiting."

The others came rushing out just in time to hear that and then the demon disappeared.

"They want us to bring Sage to the warehouse district," Hana said.

"We'll go, but they're not getting their hands on him," Rowen said. "But we will save our friends in the process."

Mia and Yulie watched from the door as they headed for town. At the warehouses, they already had Ryo, who was still unconscious, chained to the wall. Kaiyo, Cye and Vyramax entered the warehouse and they chained Cye near Ryo.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but we need to make this convincing," Kaiyo said and she punched Cye in the face, knocking him out.


End file.
